SW Ontario grain handler to change hands

Southwestern Ontario's Palmerston Grain bills its Minto Township facility as the largest inland grain terminal in the province. (PalmerstonGrain.com)

The family-owned company behind what’s billed as Ontario’s biggest inland grain terminal is set to exit the grain handling business.

The owners of Palmerston Grain — which operates from Palmerston, Ont. and handles wheat, corn, soybeans and canola through its 57,000-tonne capacity terminal at nearby Minto — have reached a deal to sell the business to grain handler South West Ag Partners of Chatham, Ont. for an undisclosed sum.

South West Ag said the deal, to close later this week, is expected to expand its reach in the Ontario market.

“It provides us with the opportunity to bring our suite of unique risk management tools and consultative grain offerings to more of Ontario’s progressive producers,” South West Ag general manager Paul Hazzard said in the company’s release Tuesday.

Palmerston Grain’s business in southwestern Ontario dates back to 1983, when it was set up by the McLaughlin family, one of the founding families of seed firm C+M Seeds.

C+M Seeds is not part of the deal and remains a “separate and ongoing business,” the companies said Tuesday.

Palmerston Grain will continue to operate under the Palmerston name, the companies said, and Palmerston’s general manager Archie Wilson “will remain a core part of the Palmerston operation.”

Palmerston’s high-throughput terminal at Minto, with storage capacity of about 2.1 million bushels, includes three high-capacity dump pits, allowing the facility to handle 22,000 bushels per hour.

Palmerston’s staff also includes full-time grain merchandisers “to facilitate commodity sales into both the domestic and export markets.”

John McLaughlin, one of the shareholding family members, said Palmerston Grain “has a high level of comfort with the people of South West Ag” through their business dealings and “long-standing relationships between some of our people.”

Operating elevators and crop input retail sites mainly in the Chatham-Kent area, South West Ag dates back to 2001, when it was formed in a merger of St. Clair Agri Services and Kent County Fertilizers. — AGCanada.com Network